CV different types

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Different types of CV

If you’re keen to explore careers beyond academia, it’s important to be aware of the marked differences between an academic CV and the kind of CV (or online job application) that you might submit elsewhere.

These may include:

Differences in style, structure, length and presentation.
Elements that you always include in an academic CV may seem out-of-place or completely unnecessary when applying for roles beyond academia.
You will have developed plenty of skills and experiences during your postdoc that employers want to hear about

Academic CVs

The purpose of an academic CV is to demonstrate your reputation and track record in your area of specialism to a research institution or to a potential funder.

It typically lists all your publications, key conference presentations you’ve delivered, the research grants or awards you’ve received, your teaching experience, and details of any professional affiliations or academic-related positions such as membership of editorial boards. It tends to be a near exhaustive account of your academic career and (except for some funding applications) there is no recommended limit in length.

Narrative Academic CVs

Increasingly funders are recognising that traditional academic CVs, whilst exhaustive, don’t cover a lot of the activities that academics actually do, promote an unhealthy and competitive research culture and are hard to compare across disciplines.

Several research funders are trialling narrative CVs, which allow researchers to evidence a wider range of activities and impacts, including knowledge generation, development of individuals, contribution to society, and give context to their careers (e.g. career breaks). For example: Royal Society’s Resume for Researchers and UKRI’s Resume for Research and Innovation.

Whilst narrative CVs value a broader range of contributions to academia, they may also introduce unintentional biases, particularly towards researchers for whom English is their first language. Funders are working to reduce these biases, but developing narrative and storytelling skills can also help researchers write persuasive narrative CVs.

CVs beyond academia

The conventions of academic CVs are well established. By contrast, a non-academic CV or job application is a macro-level overview: a quick “elevator pitch” of your career to date in which you demonstrate your value by highlighting a carefully chosen selection of your achievements, skills and experiences, tailored to the requirements of the role you are applying for.

Potential employers reading this kind of document are likely to skim-read it in just a few minutes, even just a few seconds, at most, so it needs to be written in such a way as to quickly convey essential information.

Tina Persson discusses academic versus non-academic CVs in the video below.

Hello, Tina Persson here again. Now it’s time for film number 2. Academic versus non-academic CV.

We’re going to talk about some strategies to design a CV and I will also share some tips and tricks. Your academic CV is like a peer-reviewed timeline of your work history, whereas an industry resume or CV is a branding or marketing document with the aim to show your professional achievements and what you want. Thus, when you go for a career and you send your CV for employers from a non-academic perspective, they’re interested in learning from you the value you can offer them in the future, so it’s not so much about your academic degree. That is what this really point A means.

The goal of any non-academic resume or CV is to help employers to get an idea of the value you could bring to the organisation. I will repeat again, because there is kind of a mixture when they say CV or resume. CV is usually 1-to-2 pages for non-academic employers and a resume is strictly 1 resume. However, you use resume and CV, you answer to what is written in the job ad.

Remember as well, when you write your CV that less is more. Whereas, in many academic CVs, it’s full of information. It is usually less is more in the non-academic CV. As well, we can say it’s the overall length and depth. In general, the CV that we send, so recruiters and hiring managers will have a chance to actually see the value and very quickly tagline what’s important, it’s important that you help them to easily find headlines, key skills, and titles, such as job titles, subheadings, etc., so they understand that this person has tailored that resume or CV to that specific job ad.

Then as well, it’s important that you translate things like publications, honours awards which is very academic. For the non-academic CV, you translate your publication list rather what you did before you wrote it, so it is that you define the process towards the article rather than just writing the article itself. That’s, you must help the reader to understand the value you offer. Just briefly go through, because there is, as I said, and now I’m coming to that, is it 1 page, 2 pages CV or resume?

There is kind of a mixture in Europe at the moment here. But in general, I would say that resume is 1 page. It’s like a PowerPoint presentation of yourself. Then you can have a resume or CV of 2-to-3 pages, and that can be something that is much more general. Then you can have a resume or CV that is tailored to specific jobs. You can have a full academic CV and then you can build a portfolio.

Portfolio is something that you add on where you can wrap up your publications, you can wrap up some projects or works that you have been doing, conferences, presentations, lectures, etc. that you have been doing that not necessarily fits into your CV or resume. That you can have in a document on the side, so if they ask for it, it’s easy for you to actually add it in. Here, I have a little tip. If you have your CV and your resume, if I put it that way, or your resume, you can write really far down, upon request, I can send my full academic CV and my portfolio.

Something else that can be good to add is a webpage or a business card. When you start to prepare yourself, it’s good to have a flavour of different CVs and resumes, so you can pick and choose depending on the job you are applying for. Then of course, it’s more communicated in your CV because we have to understand that the CV and your resume is your ticket to the interview.

If you’re never really invited for an interview, it’s most likely that they can’t see or understand the value you actually can offer them. It’s important to learn that if you end up in the rejection pile, you have to do something about your CV because it is your golden ticket. It shows you. If you have a lot of spell errors or things like that, it shows who you are. It’s kind of the first impression you give your future employer. You’ll also elaborate your technical skills. You can tell more about your drives and motivation and how you apply your transferable skills. It’s about culture fit, you can elaborate. Company values. Your personality.

In total, what we say is that your CV or your future CV and resume is your brand. It is your marketing material. It’s important, so work on it carefully. I will have some strategies or share some strategies with you, what you think about.

Look for keywords, even the trending ones. Make sure your resume and CV is easy to read. Draw attention to important sections. Include only relevant information. Include relevant subheadings. Communicate your value. Some more tips. If you use a photo, if and I say you absolutely don’t have to, and there are for sure certain contexts where you don’t use a photo. Figure out whether you should have a photo or not, but if you have, please use a professional photo.

Write an impactful headline already on the top indicating what you want and where you are going. You can do that in brackets or a short sentence. Use numbers if you can, that’s results and achievements. Write a very efficient summary and please, you can use story telling there. You don’t need maybe more than 3 up to 6 sentences and tailor it to your job and tell them very quickly, I’m looking for that and I fit because of.

Then of course, you should use an online resume or CV and that is of course that it also translates your resume to a LinkedIn profile.

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